Electric Street Car as a Clean Public Transport Alternative: A Choice Experiment Approach

Oindrila Dey and Debalina Chakravarty ()
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Debalina Chakravarty: Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta

No 2042, Working Papers from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

Abstract: Electric Street Car (ESC) has established itself as an ideal public transport system for urban agglomeration by offering better safety, minimum pollution and conservation of fossil fuel. Yet, India envisions going all-electric by 2030 by procuring electric buses (e-buses) rather than ESCs. The crucial question is, why not upgrade the existing ESC considering that the e-buses need a profound infrastructural development in India. This paper studies the potential uptake rate of ESC over e-buses using stratified sampling data from 1226 daily public transport commuters of Kolkata, the only Indian city having an operational ESCs. We identify the demographic, psychometric and socio-economic factors influencing the probabilistic uptake of ESC over e-buses using a random utility choice model. It estimates that 38% of the commuters demand ESC over e-buses given the alternatives’ comparative details. ESC can be a model electric public transport if there is an improvement in factors, like frequent availability of ESCs and technological upgradation. By promoting the ESC services over e-buses, the government can potentially save on public investment and reach a low carbon pathway cost-effectively. The findings have crucial implications in exploration of the operational feasibility of ESC in the small and medium-sized cities of developing economies like India.

Keywords: Public Transport; Electric Bus; Electric Street Car; Sustainability; Urban Area (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q40 Q56 R49 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2020-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-ene, nep-env, nep-tre, nep-upt and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Working Paper: Electric Street Car as a Clean Public Transport Alternative: A Choice Experiment Approach (2020)
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